Byproducts from 1998 tire fire found in water

Tuesday

Dec 20, 2005 at 4:35 AMDec 20, 2005 at 5:06 AM

Workers scooped enough oily dirt from the site of Tracy's infamous tire fire in the past three years to fill nearly 16,000 trucks. Bumper to bumper, those rigs would line up from Sacramento to Oakland and back.

Alex Breitler

TRACY -- Workers scooped enough oily dirt from the site of Tracy's infamous tire fire in the past three years to fill nearly 16,000 trucks. Bumper to bumper, those rigs would line up from Sacramento to Oakland and back.

And the cleanup isn't quite finished.

Tests earlier this fall revealed some oil -- a byproduct of the 7 million tires that burned over more than two years -- had spread into groundwater. State officials thought a layer of clay in the soil would keep the oil from sinking that far.

The contamination source is a pocket of oil-soaked gravel buried in the side of the gaping pit. As early as next month, officials will begin a six-week excavation to remove the last truckloads of gravel and complete the $16.2 million cleanup.

The state's Integrated Waste Management Board approved the final cleanup phase last week, allocating up to $700,000 for the job.

"I'll be glad when it's done," said state engineer Todd Thalhamer, who has overseen the area's restoration. "I've been out there since the fire started."

The illegally stored tires ignited Aug. 7, 1998, spewing thick black smoke and cooking up a simmering mess of wires, ash and oil. Officials let the blaze burn, thinking an 8- to 10-foot-thick clay layer would protect groundwater and spraying water on the fire might make the contaminants more likely to spread.

But the blaze smoldered stubbornly until crews finally extinguished it in December 2000. Wells were built the next year to keep track of water quality as the cleanup progressed.

"We were fairly confident we weren't going to get any groundwater contamination," Thalhamer said.

"Unfortunately for us, right where the tires were the thickest and the tallest, the clay layer mysteriously went down to a foot."

The water quality should improve soon after the tainted gravel is removed, he said. Almost half the soil has been taken to a hazardous liquid and solid waste landfill near Kettleman City, while the rest was sent to other facilities.

The plume of contaminated water was estimated at 120 feet wide and 50 feet deep. It likely poses no threat to wells, Thalhamer said.

Silas Fred "Chuck" Royster, the owner of the 50-acre tire pile, died of complications from lung cancer shortly after the fire started. His estate is bankrupt, Thalhamer said. The cleanup was bankrolled by the state's Tire Recycling Management Fund, which receives part of a $1.75 fee on each tire sold in the state for recycling efforts.

Tracy community activist Bob Sarvey said the current cleanup seems largely forgotten, though the fire never will be.

"It was bad," he said. "Every morning you got up and the air was stale. We sucked benzene for about a year and a half."

He's seen the endless procession of trucks leaving the site southwest of South MacArthur Drive and Linne Road.